Low Radioactivity North American ETA Update

Following on yesterday's report of Easterly migrating radiation through the Gulfstream, today's Reuters chimes in with an update of their own. To wit: "Low concentrations of radioactive particles from Japan's disaster-hit nuclear power plant have been heading eastwards and are expected to reach North America in days, a Swedish official said on Thursday. Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the Swedish Defence Research Institute, a government agency, was citing data from a network of international monitoring stations set up to detect signs of any nuclear weapons tests. He said he was convinced they would eventually be detected over the whole northern hemisphere." The good news is that the dosage is very limited: "It is only a question of very, very low activities so it is nothing for people to worry about," De Geer said." Naturally, with the credibility of every government around the world shot, it is no surprise that most consumer Geiger counter stores are sold out of inventory at this point, at virtualy all price points. For those who managed to get their hands on one when we first noted the coming Geiger bubble, congratulations.

"In the past when they had nuclear weapons tests in China ... then there were similar clouds all the time without anybody caring about it at all," he said.

Before he spoke, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission advised any Americans living near Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to move at least 50 miles away but it played down the risks of contamination to the United States.

"All the available information continues to indicate Hawaii, Alaska, the U.S. Territories and the U.S. West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity," it said in a statement on Wednesday.

De Geer was commenting on data from the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO), a Vienna-based independent body for monitoring possible breaches of the test ban.

He said he believed the radioactive particles would "eventually also come here."

The CTBTO has more than 60 stations around the world which can pick up very low levels of radioactive particles such as caesium and iodine isotopes.

It continuously provides data to its member states, including Sweden, but does not make the details public.

The New York Times said a CTBTO forecast of the possible movement of the radioactive plume showed it churning across the Pacific, and touching the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting southern California late on Friday.

In a similar way, radiation from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 spread around the globe and reached the west coast of the United States in 10 days, its levels measurable but minuscule, the newspaper said. The CTBTO projection gave no information about actual radiation levels but only showed how a radioactive plume would probably move and disperse, it said.

The only two developments that can adversely affect the status quo at this point would be the restart of a chain reaction at the plant, a possibility reported on yesterday, as well as a deterioration at the spent fuel rod pool which may or may not have any water in it at this point. Alas, nobody really knows.